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J&C writers share their favorite Jeff Washburn stories

Staff reports
Published 7:16 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2017

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It was a Broncho homecoming Friday for Jeff Washburn as he inspired the varsity football team on their way to the field to face Muncie Central. The team honored Washburn and his dedication to Laffayette Jeff by adorning their helmets with his familiar nickname, WASH.(Photo: Eric Schlene / For the J&C.)Buy Photo

One of the first of about a million stories I heard from Wash was about how the “H” wound up in Bronchos, the Lafayette Jeff mascot.

His enthusiastic account squared with the legend the old-timers told along the baseline at the Crawley Center, and came with the authority of being passed down along four generations of Lafayette Jeff grads, starting with his grandmother, a 1912 grad, through him and on to his son, Jade. It had to do with a seamstress who couldn’t spell and a school board too cheap to ask for a do-over.

“Now you know,” Wash said the first time he told that legend, sitting at the head of all those tables pushed together one night after deadline at the late, great Pub at Fifth and Union streets.

He said the same thing again when I asked him to retell the story this fall, when he had time to kill between those draining cancer treatments and the next game he planned to cover.

This time, when I told him that I’d stumbled across news clippings and yearbook accounts that undercut that seamstress account – no matter how good it was – Wash told me: “I don’t have any reason to believe my grandmother would lie to me.”

Those words haunted me as I wrote the story about the 1921-22 Lafayette Jeff team who lost four starters because they’d played in pickup Sunday school games before the season started. When the replacements barely missed going to state, coach Fritz Grosshans called the team a “bunch of little, fighting Bronchos.” The name caught on. And the spelling? That was just the preferred spelling of the day.

When Wash’s number popped up on the phone minutes after that story was published, I braced myself. Unfailingly nice, he’d never given me reason to fear a conversation. But I’d never called his grandmother a liar before.

“Outstanding!” Wash hollered into the phone. First he loved getting to be the last one to tell the legend of the misspelled uniforms. And he loved that he had a new story to tell about his alma mater.

How about your grandma, Wash?

“Her story is still better,” Wash laughed. “But you know I’m going to tell this one. A lot.

“Now we know.”

Nathan Baird, Purdue men's basketball beat writer

The worst part of telling stories about Jeff Washburn is knowing we don’t get to hear his own stories anymore.

I wasn’t around for the glory days, when Wash held court at The Pub or some other local establishment, carrying on with all of the luminaries of the Tippecanoe County sports scene.

But I had my own memorable moments with Wash, and today they certainly seem glorious.

In Las Vegas we shared a blackjack table and later a dinner table for the steak and shrimp special at the now-defunct Stardust casino. Every time I returned from a casino trip, Wash wanted details. He loved to share his own. Win or lose, I had been looking forward to my next trip in two weeks so Wash and I could break it down for Wash pregame at Mackey Arena.

However, Wash also loved to hear stories. Even in these last few terrible months, he always asked how I was doing. How was my girlfriend, Hayleigh? How are things at the paper? Wash reached into your life and brought genuine warmth and humor and appreciation.

Wash left us too soon, but he left us with so much.

Sam King, high school sports reporter

There's a lot to say about Wash and in many ways that makes sense because every phone call or personal encounter with a simple agenda turned into an hour or more chat that strayed so far away from the original topic

Many times I forgot the initial intent of the conversation. Wash was a man of many words and loved to tell stories, which made him perfect for this profession. He is the one who taught me not to write about events, but rather about people.

Wash loved sports, but more importantly enjoyed the people involved in those sports. It reshaped how I go about doing my job and made me a much better storyteller in my own right. I will be forever grateful for that guidance.

Mike Carmin, Purdue football and women’s basketball beat writer

As I walked through the tunnel inside Mackey Arena prior to Purdue’s game against Louisville on Tuesday, there was Wash sitting courtside.

Without hesitation, I walked toward my former co-worker of more than two decades. He had a smile on his face.

We shook hands and chatted for about five minutes. His health. How he was getting along. He asked how I was doing. He told me he was a fighter and would fight until the very end. No question, he did.

Wash was always eager to engage with people. It didn’t matter who they were or where they came from. When a high school journalism student wanted to job shadow a writer at the Journal & Courier, Wash always stepped up. Another chance to meet someone new.

That’s the part of the business I quickly learned from him as a freelancer starting out nearly 30 years ago.

We write about games, events, championships and breaking news. The final scores are important but so are the people. When in doubt, write about somebody. The star of the game. Or the walk-on who plays once a month.